I get the question, “Hey, I slipped on some ice or some snow. Do I have a case?” Well, it depends. So, in Missouri and Illinois and most other states, if a landowner does not shovel for ice and snow and takes no action, they’re not liable, but most landowners should.

There are exceptions to that. There’s law that requires and establishes that landowners have a non-delegable duty, meaning they can’t get rid of their duty to keep their premises safe for patrons. But, most of the time that’s not the case. So if it’s an ice and snow and you fall or you’re injured, look around. See if there is salt somewhere, typically the area where you fell in. Oh! Is there where you fell has ice? But, did they salt everywhere else but this? Did they miss this spot? Did they inadequately do it?

And especially in where we live, there’s the freezing and thawing. Right now if you can see outside… Hey Rodney, move the camera over here. If you can see over here, you see the ice coming down the Mississippi River right here, and it’s coming. But today, it’s about 40 degrees, and that’s the high today. Three days ago it was 5 degrees. So, the temperature changes, and what happens in these parking lots is you’ll have someone shovel, they create these piles of snow and ice, then it melts, moves over and refreezes and creates these ice spots.

Often when they’re on black asphalt, we call them black ice, and you as a walker, going to the store, going to one of these stores, you don’t know, you don’t see it, and it’s up to the landowner to do it, and typically they’ve always done it. They’ve always taken some action. So, if you’re involved in a slip and fall like this on ice, look around, make sure you see what you fell on, look around for ice and snow and indications that they have tried to remedy it. Go report it to the store, the landowner, whoever it is. Make them do an incident report. Get the name of the manager, whoever you’re reporting it to. Get whatever witnesses and what other information you have. Don’t trust that the manager is going to write down the three other people that fell that day.

I’ve had many cases where the person falls, and they’re hurt, they’re laying on the ground, and then someone comes to help them and they fall and slip too or they’re slipping while they’re doing it. Those are key witnesses to this, and make sure you get their information. Report it to the landowner and go get your medical attention and treat for yourself.

And then if you have questions about how to make a premises liability claim and the compensability of the claim, what your damages are, call me, Gary Burger at 314-542-2222. We have whole areas on our website, www.burgerlaw.com, about the law of slip and fall, about these different fact situations. We’ve represented a lot of people in a lot of di2017fferent situations.

Also, remember, if in the inclement weather, that all gets tracked into the store, and so, stores have a duty to keep their entrances free from water, free from slippery stuff as well. So whether that incident, that slip and fall happens outside or right indoor, you have a claim. You probably have a good claim. It’s to important too to get a personal injury lawyer right away so we can start getting these witnesses and talking to these people. One of the key things is getting the security camera video because that will all get deleted later, so we put these stores on notice right away, and you get them on notice, not salting the ice patch where you slipped, you fall in, and then them remedying it later like they should have, and we also can find the witnesses, so give us a call. Thanks.